Group says it plans to sue state over voter registration

Project Vote and Demos have sent a letter on behalf of the Florida branch of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, to Secretary of State Kurt Browning giving him a 90 days notice before the organization files a lawsuit over voter registration practices in Florida.

ACORN maintains that the Department of Children and Families and the Department of Health are not in compliance with the National Voter Registration Act, saying that the numbers show that the two agencies are not offering voter registration applications to people applying for public assistance. A survey by Project Vote in Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Orange Counties in November showed that several state agency offices did not maintain voter registration forms and interviews with clients indicated they were not offered voter registration applications.

The group says it looks forward to meeting with Browning to discuss these problems and await his "remedy" that he will carry out. Here's a copy of the letter: Download acorn_letter.pdf

A statement from Browning's office said the state "looks forward" to demonstrating compliance with federal law and there are "multiple checks" to ensure public assistance agencies are providing applications to clients. The statement said just because the number of applications from public agencies has dropped does not mean the state is not following the law.